Majority favors marijuana legalization for 1st time, according to nation’s most authoritative survey

Washington Post ^ | March 04, 2015 | Christopher Ingraham

[DiogenesLamp]

Just curious, are you on the jackboot payroll?

I think anyone that's had some real experience with dope fiends will be a "jackboot" which I think is your way of saying sane, rational people who recognize a deadly threat when they see one.

How many crack/meth heads do you know? Just asking, cause I figure you are very ignorant of drug culture. They always start with weed, then they go to "blunts" (Weed with crack) and after that they are off to the races. (To see how fast they can kill themselves and cheat their dependents of support.)

[WMarshal]

Passing you a doobie DiogenesLamp!

[DiogenesLamp]

Give up the illusion of control that “criminalizing” human nature gives you. I worry more about atheist driving Christianity and traditional America out of the public square than I do potheads. I worry more about lock’em up freaks puting American youth in prisons for petty drug possession crimes so prison imams can convert them into Islimes.

You must think it's just a coincidence that dope is in the ascendency at the same time as queerdom, atheism, and Islamic insanity. My friend, it is no coincidence, it is just multiple fronts being pushed by the forces of evil. This stuff is happening simultaneously for a reason, and it's no coincidence.

All you are doing is increasing the power of the state to control you...

Funny, that's exactly what i've been saying about you dope legalizers.

[Second Amendment First]

So you are saying you have real experience with dope fiends?
Would you care to elaborate?

[DiogenesLamp]

So you do work for a jackboot agency?

I'm beginning to wish I did. I'm getting so fed up with you dopers pushing your drugs, that I think I would thoroughly enjoy tossing a bunch of you in jail.

You are like the "Gaystapo", you just won't shut up about your pet vice.

[Second Amendment First]

I would thoroughly enjoy tossing a bunch of you in jail.

Thank you for your honesty.

[DiogenesLamp]

So you are saying you have real experience with dope fiends? Would you care to elaborate?

Would love to, but i'm going to have to go. I have company and i'm being rude typing on this thing.

I will say a few quick things. I've known four people who died because of their involvement in drugs. (Crack/meth/weed)

Two males, (both shot by other dope fiends) and two females, (both overdosed.) I've known several others, some whom I consider to be friends, who have gone to prison for dope related crimes, and I've met and talked with countless others. I knew a man who pimped his own mother to feed his crack habit. I've known pimps, dealers, whores, gang-bangers, and numerous addicts. I've met their families, and i've seen the children they left behind after they died.

I do not work in Law enforcement, and I never have. I do not work in drug counseling or anything like it. I make no money at all that derives from drugs or drug enforcement. (I work in electronics.)

That's all for now. I'll add details next time if you are still interested, but it won't be till tomorrow at the earliest.

If I seem passionate on the issue, it's because i've looked into the abyss and recoiled in horror.

[free_life]

Educate yourself instead of just making that shite up!

Do you want to prohibit alcohol? I ask because you more accurately described alcohol use than cannabis use.

[Second Amendment First]

I can understand your horror.
But I don’t think all those people should have been imprisoned.
I appreciate your passion. Enjoy your evening. We will discuss at an other time.
FreeRegards

[free_life]

Cannabis is easier to get than alcohol, right now. This is about ending making free people criminals over their personal use of a plant!

[Star Traveler]

It’s also about making more idiots and mindless zombies for the liberals ... LOL ...

[free_life]

Given the large numbers of crackpot murderers who are stoked up on weed when they commit their crimes...

Source of your idiocy is? No I am not asking for your mothers name, but the source of your claim people who smoke 'weed' murder and other crimes.

[free_life]

Hey ‘bag of hammers’ you want to prohibit alcohol too?

[free_life]

No it it his way of saying you are jackboot moron! You just make bs up and then tear into those who challenge you. You really don’t have a clue do you?

[exDemMom]

You do understand it’s been used by populations all over the earth for centuries, don’t you? We’ve spent billions to control it and it’s still about the largest cash crop in the US. We’ve nearly destroyed the Constitution in these enforcement efforts and have little control to show for it.

The fact that something has been done for centuries does not make it harmless or excusable. There have been many harmful practices throughout history, some that persist to this day, which cannot be claimed to be harmless.

The argument that it takes time, effort, and money to control a harmful activity is also not an argument that we should just allow the activity to continue unimpeded from now on. We spend a lot of effort trying to control a lot of activities that continue despite our best efforts. Murder, robbery, rape, etc., all continue despite enforcement efforts. And we have already learned that legalizing one form of murder (murder of the very young) caused it to become far more prevalent than it was before it was legalized--thus, we can reasonably expect that any illegal activity will only increase if we stop trying to control it.

The cost of enforcement is one thing. But what is the cost of lack of enforcement? I would say that the cost of these people becoming permanently unemployable, and turning to other crimes to support their addictions is pretty high--not to mention all the other collateral costs--as well.

[free_life]

You know people who died from smoking cannabis (weed)? Really? Oh geez how does FR attract people like you? I will call you on it, bullshite! And alcohol is the gateway drug to pre-counter your next bs. I got 30 years helping addicts and alcoholics, you?

Know anyone who died from alcohol use? How about anyone who was violent after consuming alcohol? “Drunken murderous rage”, ever read those words. What is your hate over this plant, cannabis?

I don’t use any drugs including prescription medication or cannabis, won’t even consume caffeine. I think getting high or drunk is just plain stupid, but I would prefer a country full of cannabis smokers than clueless jackboots like you that care nada about our rights and freedoms because of you delusional nonfactual bull!

People like you piss me off as much as morons like Obama.

[Second Amendment First]

the cost of these people becoming permanently unemployable, and turning to other crimes to support their addictions is pretty high--not to mention all the other collateral costs--as well.

You would be surprised at the number of highly placed professionals who have indulged in the use of marijuana and are not murders or rapists or unemployed losers. Better keep a close watch on your doctors and lawyers and judges. They don't live in the ghetto.

[free_life]

Is there a single person in this country that could not find cannabis to purchase right now today? And we should throw these people in prison, give teens criminal records that ruin their futures in some fantasy political war of liberals getting more votes? Com’on I have seen you post good stuff on other topics here, you can’t be in the stupid camp on this.

[Star Traveler]

If you call not wanting a Zombie-America in the hands of Liberals ... as stupid ... then I guess so ... LOL ...

I’ve seen way too many stupid idiot Zombie-Potheads. It’s quite embarrassing to even refer to them as human beings!

[exDemMom]

Educate yourself instead of just making that shite up!

Do you want to prohibit alcohol? I ask because you more accurately described alcohol use than cannabis use.

I do educate myself, by reading the medical literature extensively.

As this experiment with legalizing marijuana goes on, it becomes easier for researchers to actually conduct studies on the effects of marijuana. And what they are finding is not pleasant.

Cannabis abuse in adolescence and the risk of psychosis: a brief review of the preclinical evidence.
Long lasting consequences of cannabis exposure in adolescence.
Neurobiological alterations at adult age triggered by adolescent exposure to cannabinoids.
Adolescent exposure to cannabis as a risk factor for psychiatric disorders.
Cannabis and adolescent brain development.
Brain volume in male patients with recent onset schizophrenia with and without cannabis use disorders.

I could post more, but the evidence is clear: marijuana is not harmless. It is especially damaging to the adolescent brain (and physically, the brain is still adolescent until about age 25).

I am not certain why those who advocate for greater societal/legal tolerance of pot use always bring up alcohol. These are vastly different substances, with completely different effects on the body. Ethanol, for example, is water soluble and is removed from the body fairly quickly, while THC from marijuana, being fat soluble, stays in the body for weeks, with who knows what long-term effects. Furthermore, the effects of alcohol use are completely irrelevant to the effects of marijuana use. You have to assess the deleterious effects of marijuana use on its own terms, not compared to something else. Sure, marijuana is not as immediately damaging as krokodil, but that doesn't make it safe.